Man who took hostages from Clinton office in 2007 missing from unit

Published April 07, 2013

Associated Press

MANCHESTER, N.H. –  A man who took hostages at a Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaign office in 2007 escaped from a minimum-security correctional facility on Sunday, authorities said.

Leeland Eisenberg was discovered missing during a head count Sunday afternoon at the Calumet Transitional Housing Unit in Manchester, state Department of Corrections spokesman Jeff Lyons said.

Eisenberg was sentenced in May 2010 to 3 1/2 to 7 years for probation violations. The 52-year-old would have been eligible for parole in August.

Once he is found, he will be charged with escape, a felony punishable by 3 1/2 to 7 years in prison, Lyons said. Eisenberg isn't considered armed.

Eisenberg spent about two years behind bars for the November 2007 siege at Clinton's Rochester campaign office in which he claimed to have a bomb. No one was hurt in a five-hour standoff and the bomb turned out to be road flares.

At his arraignment in that case, public defender Randy Hawkes portrayed Eisenberg as a man at the end of his rope emotionally after being repeatedly turned down when he sought psychiatric help.

Eisenberg "heard voices and saw a movie in his head telling him he had to sacrifice himself" to shine light on the flaws in the health care system, Hawkes said.

Eisenberg was released on probation in November 2009. His first violation occurred soon after his release, when he failed to charge his monitoring bracelet. He was incarcerated in January 2010 after failing to take mandatory alcohol breath tests.

In February 2010, he cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet and fled, a day after being given a last chance at freedom by a judge who released him despite multiple probation violations. He was found in his Dover apartment the next day.

Eisenberg's long criminal record also includes two rape convictions.

He was sentenced to 10 years for rape in Worcester, Mass., in 1985 but escaped the next year and committed another rape, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to 11 to 20 years for that. He was released from prison in March 2005.

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Clinton office hostage taker missing from NH unit

Published April 07, 2013

Associated Press

MANCHESTER, N.H. –  Authorities say a New Hampshire man who took hostages at a Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaign office in 2007 has vanished from his correctional facility.

The state Department of Corrections tells WMUR-TV (http://bit.ly/10JbGpv ) that Leeland Eisenberg missed a head count Sunday afternoon at the Calumet (kal-yoo-MEHT') Transitional Housing Unit in Manchester.

Eisenberg was sentenced in May 2010 to 3 ½ to 7 years for probation violations. The station reports that he would have been eligible for parole in August.

Authorities say the 52-year-old Eisenberg isn't considered armed.

He spent about two years behind bars for the November 2007 siege at Clinton's Rochester campaign office in which he claimed to have a bomb. No one was hurt in a five-hour standoff and the bomb turned out to be road flares.

View the original article here

Clinton awards more than $700,000 in Haiti ag

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti –  A charity for former U.S. President Bill Clinton on Monday awarded more than $700,000 to develop the country's agriculture sector.

The Clinton Foundation announced that the grants will go toward efforts to plant trees, build a coffee farm and train farmers.

Clinton has been the United Nations' special envoy to Haiti since shortly after the devastating 2009 earthquake. He left Haiti following a two-day visit accompanied by potential investors representing a perfume company, restaurants and a lingerie company.

"The country has been beat down so long and the controversies are so familiar to people that it's sometimes too easy to see the down side. I'm not naive. I know what the down side is," he told The Associated Press. But, even so, he said, "This is a place of staggering potential."

One of the delegation's visits on Monday was to a brewery Heineken NV purchased last year. The company announced on Monday that it would invest $40 million to expand the brewery and help farmers who supply it with sorghum.

President Michel Martelly is trying to lure foreign investors to help rebuild the Caribbean nation following the massive quake. His administration has routinely employed the mantra, "Haiti is open for business."

But analysts in both Haiti and abroad say the nation is held back by an old-fashioned banking system and a dysfunctional justice system that provides little legal certainty for investors.

Other deterrents include U.S. government advisories that alert travelers to security concerns, a cholera epidemic and inadequate infrastructure.

The travel warnings didn't escape the notice of first-time Haiti visitor Mario Batali, an American celebrity chef, even if he did have the luxury of traveling with Clinton's security detail.

"The danger is in my opinion very overplayed," said Batali, wearing his signature orange Crocs and shorts.

Batali said he could imagine introducing Haitian products to customers in his Italian restaurants: "I could see using their coffee. I could see using their mangoes. I could see using their rum. I could see using just about everything we've bumped into."

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